The reliance on Quartararo and Marquez that slams Yamaha and Honda

If we were already aware that Honda relied heavily on Marc Márquez, a similar dynamic has been imposed on Yamaha around an undisputed leader, Fabio Quartararo.

Veteran Andrea Dovizioso, who returned to the MotoGP world championship, was on the right track with his statements during the French Grand Prix, after resigning himself to receiving the technical help he expected and once his efforts to change his riding style were in vain .

“Yamaha is in a very good situation, because it won last year and this year it is first in the championship, but from my point of view it is in a situation very similar to that of Marc and Honda in the last six years,” warned the Italian driver, underlining how well Quartararo ‘s riding suits the needs of the M1 .

Slowly but surely, the European brands have been taking over MotoGP, as shown by the results they have been achieving since last year and, especially, since Ducati ‘s great season finale in 2021.

When the competition resumed a few months ago, the upward trend of the brands from the old continent was confirmed, with the absence of Yamaha on the podium in Qatar at the start of the season. But it did not end there, since to see a victory for a non-European manufacturer, it was necessary to wait for the fifth race , something not seen since 1972.

Despite the obvious progression of Ducati and Aprilia, as well as the occasional flashes of KTM, who were able to clinch a victory earlier in the year despite the difficulties they have endured, Yamaha returned to the front. The Iwata brand took a podium finish in race two and returned to victory in race five.

This was enough to take over the reins of the drivers’ world championship and put the Japanese squad on the path to confirming the great success of 2021.

Fabio Quartararo , who led Yamaha to the title conquest last year for the first time since 2015, when Jorge Lorenzo scored his last wound in the premier class, reasserted himself in the role of team leader . In 2022, he is the first rider of the brand and, in addition, he has given Yamaha all the points it has achieved in the constructors’ championship, placing it second, which is to be commended.

The difference between Quartararo and his brand-mates is abysmal, both in the general classification and in his ability to regularly place himself among the best, whether in classification or in the final results of the grand prix.

If we leave aside the aggregate points and select the best possible performances from the first part of the season, the result is similar. Only Quartararo has been able to reach the top 5, and compared to his ten results in the top 10, the rest of the Yamaha riders have accumulated two.

The performances of the Yamaha riders, in detail

The dependency is such that when Quartararo makes a mistake, the entire Yamaha clan reels. The brand left Assen without adding points to its locker, as the Frenchman crashed and had to retire, but Franco Morbidelli and Darryn Binder did not finish either. The only one who saw the checkered flag, Andrea Dovizioso, did so in 16th position, outside the points.

One needs to look back to the 1989 Grand Prix of Nations to find a similar performance by Iwata’s manufacturer, but that race was boycotted by a large number of drivers, who considered the track dangerous after being interrupted by a downpour.

Another similar episode happened at the 1994 German Grand Prix , when only Yamaha engines associated with ROC or Harris chassis managed to finish in the top fifteen.

Now, Quartararo seems to be the only one of the four drivers of the fingerboard brand who can get the most out of the M1. The Frenchman is making the most of his bike, as he leads the championship, but his teammate is only 19th on the same list.

“Imagine where Yamaha would be if they didn’t have Fabio right now, and you’ll realize there isn’t really a difference between one team and another,” a Honda source recently told Motorsport.com.

“I don’t know if Yamaha decided to get into this situation, or if they got into it [by accident],” Andrea Dovizioso noted in his May analysis. “But now the situation is similar to that of Honda: there is only one rider who is able to exploit the full potential and make a big difference to the other riders.”

Honda, in low hours in MotoGP due to the absence of Marc Márquez

What we are seeing at Yamaha can be compared to what has already become a classic at Honda. Only the specific results are saved, since HRC has been suffering from injuries for two years and the absence of a leader who has become essential.

Marc Márquez has left a void at Honda since breaking his humerus in the first race of 2020 at Jerez, and his absence has highlighted the limitations of the RC213V .

This prototype has become a machine from which no one knows how to get all its juices and whose evolution attempts have not yielded results so far.

The 2020 season, the one with the accident that stopped Márquez in his tracks, was the beginning of Honda’s downward spiral. For the first time since the inception of the current program in 1982, HRC failed to take a single win, making it their worst season in the premier class.

Since then, the gold wing manufacturer has been unable to raise its head, despite three wins, all of which were won by the #93 when it was able to return to racing last season.

A few weeks ago, at the Sachsenring, Honda failed to score points in the race, after three retirements (Pol Espargaró, Alex Márquez and Takaaki Nakagami) and a 16th place for Stefan Bradl. It was Honda’s first time without a reward since they boycotted the French GP in 1982 for safety reasons.

Just a week later, Yamaha suffered the same fate, getting a little closer to its great rival, and showing how quickly they fall when their respective leaders falter.

But there is a big difference between both factories during this season. Quartararo has rarely been absent from the finish line of races, while Márquez is currently undergoing a full period of rest after his latest operation on his arm.

Despite this obligatory rest since the Catalunya Grand Prix, and his previous absence in Indonesia and Argentina due to a new episode of diplopia, the #93 continues to be the best placed driver of the brand in the championship, in 13th position.

In the constructors’ standings, Honda is in last place, with Márquez once again making the biggest contribution. Of the six races he has contested, he has achieved the best result of the brand on four occasions.

After the halfway point of the season, with a single podium for Pol Espargaró in Losail, but that already seems very far away, there are reasons to fear a second campaign without any victory, as happened in 2020…

The performances of the Honda pilots, in detail

Con Charlotte Guerdoux